Prioritize a Secure by Design approach for quantum era cyber resilience

Resilience is a crucial skill in life and business operations. With AI use growing and mainstream quantum computing on the horizon, now is the time to increase your resilience by taking a Secure by Design approach. 

Delivering solutions that are Secure by Design involves integrating security measures early and throughout the application development and transformation process. With this approach, security considerations are maintained front and center by design, never as an afterthought or bolt-on. They become proactively embedded into your organization's architecture, life cycle processes and culture.

Such an approach is necessary because of the many security challenges on the horizon: 

• Quantum computers are expected to be capable of breaking traditional cryptographic algorithms in seconds. Such a disruption to enterprise cybersecurity makes the proactive adoption of post-quantum cryptography essential. 
• As AI and quantum computing advances accelerate, previously unseen or unknown vulnerabilities, attack vectors and exploits will emerge.
• Emerging standards, like NIST’s Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization Project, add layers to enhancing and adopting robust security measures. 
• Interconnected systems and environments are especially vulnerable due to unique and complex security requirements, including the convergence of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) environments.

Embracing Secure by Design for resilience 

Continuous vigilance and adaptability of security strategies can bolster your posture against these challenges. You could be at greater risk if you’ve jumped directly into technology implementation without taking the necessary design steps. With the emergence of post-quantum threats, Secure by Design principles become fundamental to achieving operational resilience. 

Prioritizing Secure by Design is the foundational first step toward operational resilience and the “ounce of prevention” that identifies and mitigates vulnerabilities during design and development. Anyone who has experienced disruption following a breach or a ransomware attack can attest that it’s far better and less costly to mitigate rather than remediate. Commitment to being Secure by Design reassures your stakeholders and boosts confidence you’ll be ready when threats evolve. 

Worst-case scenarios can and do happen. Operational resilience helps you adapt to, withstand and recover from adverse events. Technology has become central to modern enterprises. Cyber resilience lets you continuously deliver intended outcomes despite cyber-attacks. Strengthening your resilience protects you, even as attacks happen more often and grow in sophistication. 

Implementing Secure by Design: An action plan 

If you’re ready to embrace a Secure by Design approach and increase your operational resilience, take these steps: 

• Identify your attack surface and assess security risks and potential weaknesses, particularly those susceptible to quantum-enabled attacks.
• Check whether identified weaknesses have already been exploited, compromising systems, identities or data.
• Consider application transformation and end-to-end modernization for legacy systems. 
• Establish post-quantum cryptography cyber defense strategies, such as those recommended by NIST’s Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization Project and the compliance expectations of other regulatory organizations. 
• Introduce a Zero Trust Architecture to benefit both IT and OT environments as they converge. Incorporate the principles of least privilege, continuous verification and robust segmentation. 
• Align and integrate cross-functional teams. Development, security and operations teams would cross-functionally become DevSecOps. This aligns security considerations, incorporating them into every development life cycle stage and ongoing operations.
• Foster a culture of security awareness that encourages everyone in your organization to take responsibility for cybersecurity.
• Develop a clear, actionable, and regularly tested incident response plan that assigns roles and responsibilities while rehearsing the plan through desktop simulations and live testing.
• Prioritize an advanced cyber recovery capability beyond traditional backup. Protection and detection mechanisms aren’t perfect, but effective response and recovery measures can contribute to operational resiliency.
• Improve collaboration between IT, security, legal, and other relevant business units for a cohesive disruption response.
• Utilize automation and AI-driven tools for governance, real-time threat monitoring, incident response, and recovery capability. 

Leadership’s role in quantum-era security 

While implementing a Secure by Design approach is crucial, it's equally important for leadership to drive and support these changes. The most quantum-ready leaders will be those who expect the unexpected. This includes being prepared for novel attack vectors that may exploit previously unknown or unseen vulnerabilities.

Security is a strategic enterprise issue as much as it is an IT issue. During strategic planning, cybersecurity must be a central focus of organizational goals to align resilience with broader business objectives. Leaders show that they anticipate rapidly evolving threats by allocating resources for cybersecurity solutions. 

Silos hinder security adoption. Break down silos within and between departments, across IT, OT and business units, and establish consistent security best practices. Evolving your culture isn’t easy, but security is everyone’s responsibility, and it starts at the top, with leaders communicating enterprise risk clearly, concisely and credibly to all stakeholders. By taking the lead in prioritizing and driving cybersecurity initiatives, leaders can better position their organizations to protect against quantum-era threats. 

Protect your organization from quantum adversaries 

Mitigating the risk of quantum-enabled adversaries is a proactive task to safeguard your organization now and in the not-too-distant future. Prioritizing a Secure by Design approach and fostering a culture of operational resilience is crucial for thriving in the quantum era.

As the theoretical becomes a practical reality, leadership must act. Assess risks, implement robust security measures and drive change across your organization. Start taking steps today to boost your operational and cyber resilience and demonstrate your readiness for the quantum-era challenges ahead. 

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